


Cold Cold Man

by Kivea



Category: South Park
Genre: Arguing, Established Relationship, Fights, Gift Exchange, Gift Giving, Happy Ending, Holidays, M/M, romcom, winter holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28322301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kivea/pseuds/Kivea
Summary: They'd had an argument. So close to the holidays, they'd had a fight. While Kyle brushed it off like any other, it stuck with Craig. It stuck with him and he needed to do something to make up for it.He might've struggled to express himself in words, but he had other ways.
Relationships: Kyle Broflovski/Craig Tucker
Comments: 10
Kudos: 43





	Cold Cold Man

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays!!!! This fic was inspired by Cold Cold Man, by Saint Motel (Thank you Em for the inspiration as always u fukkin ) 
> 
> Today not only did I finish my Christmas fic, but the Cryle Zine was released for free online! You can find the online and PDF links on the tumblr site here:
> 
> cryleweek.tumblr.com/post/638437175380344832
> 
> I'll be posting the fic I wrote for it in the New Year, but you can find it early in the zine - along with many other super awesome fics and arts.

It was just a normal day. Normal like any other day, with Kyle coming round to see him after work, knocking on his door and greeting him with a bright smile, forcing his way into Craig’s apartment and already speaking as he stripped himself of his thick coat and warm hat. 

It was a normal, quiet time together. They got takeout and sat in front of the TV to watch some of their favorite shows together. He stole his favorite parts of Kyle’s meal. Kyle kicked him in the hip and pretended to be mad, though there was a smile on his face. 

With food finished he ended up sprawled across the redhead as their show finished, his eyes half closed from the calming administrations of having his boyfriend’s fingers caress through his hair. 

It was just a normal day. 

The only thing that was different was the closeness to the holiday season. His neighbors had Christmas music on so loud that he could hear it through the walls after Kyle turned off the TV. His living room had a small Christmas tree on the windowsill that his best friend had _insisted_ he should have, else suffer through being called ‘Scrooge’ for the rest of the year. 

Kyle admitted that he did need to leave eventually, and return to his own home, even if Craig did offer for him to stay. He needed to go to work at a reasonable time the next morning. His mother was expecting him. 

No one wanted to upset Sheila Broflovski. 

The question was innocent. Asked by the redhead after he helped Craig move the remnants of their takeout to the kitchen. 

“I was thinking maybe…we could do something for the holidays?”

Craig raised a brow as he looked over to Kyle. “I thought you didn’t do Christmas?”

“I don’t,” Kyle confirmed. “But that doesn’t mean we can celebrate just a…mutual thing together, right? We don’t have to put a name on it, just something together, because it’s a special time of year.”

“All those festive things are getting to you.”

Kyle huffed out. “You can just _say_ no.”

“I didn’t say no,” Craig insisted. “Go on, what were you thinking.”

“Well, we could go out somewhere, or do something here. I know Tweek takes Wendyl out, to like, a hotel, though I guess it’s a bit late for that.”

“>Whatever you want, babe.”

Kyle didn’t take that as an answer. “I want you to pick.” 

“Why?” 

“Because I always pick, Craig,” the man’s voice began to grow tight. Annoyed. “So, I want you to pick this time!” 

“If you want me to take you out on a date, I will?” 

“That’s not the issue!” 

Craig felt an annoyance of his own building. “Then what is?” 

“I just – I want you to pick, okay?!” 

Kyle’s arms crossed over his chest as his brows pinched together and green eyes waited expectantly for Craig to answer. He knew that it was difficult to navigate the minefield of Kyle’s anger; one wrong move and it would explode. 

He made the wrong move. 

“Honestly, Kyle, I don't mind what it is. Any of them. Meal out, why not?” 

He didn’t know which part of the sentence was the wrong move, but he knew he’d stepped on a mine when Kyle’s eyes narrowed. 

“Why not?” Kyle echoed. 

Craig shrugged. 

“You know what? It doesn’t matter,” Kyle decided as he left the kitchen and started to make tracks towards the front door. “It was a bad idea.” 

“Wait, what is it?” 

“It’s nothing!” 

“It’s something, don’t just run away,” Craig pressed from his position in the doorway as his heartbeat picked up and he did his best to keep his temper under wraps. “You want to do something, let’s do something then?” 

“You clearly don’t care, so what’s the point in investing in it?” Kyle argued. 

“I do care!”

“Sure as hell doesn’t look like it.”

Craig snapped at the short, angry words, and spat back: “Just because I’m not expressive like you doesn’t mean I don’t care!” 

“Would it kill you to just – not be so apathetic at me?”

“Would it kill you not to be so needy?”

Kyle’s jaw clenched, eyes narrowing at the words. Craig regretted them as soon as they left his mouth. 

He knew how Kyle felt about being called needy. 

“I should go.”

Craig didn’t respond at first. He wracked his brain for a solution as he watched Kyle head towards the hallway, picking his jacket off the hangers that lined the wall. Craig ran his hands through his hair as he swore under his breath and started to speak. 

“Look, we can – I’ll look and see if any nice hotels have rooms for the night, yeah? Maybe it’ll be nice to spend a night somewhere that’s fancy.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Kyle muttered as he finished pulling on his jacket. “I’ve got shit to do.”

“Babe, c’mon,” Craig pleaded as he tried not to let his voice grow whiny, grasping Kyle’s wrist. “Don’t just leave, let’s talk about this.”

“Why, so you can stare at me with that blank expression some more?”

Craig felt a flare of anger. “I’m not blank, I just genuinely don’t mind!”

“Maybe I wish you would.”

He clenched his jaw as he stared down at the redhead. 

“I’m sorry,” Kyle muttered as he ran a hand across the back of his neck. “I just…I think I should go home.”

Craig felt his hear sink a little. 

“I’ll text you later, okay?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Kyle smiled, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I promise.”

He leant down and met Kyle’s lips in a brief kiss before the redhead turned and made his way out. 

He felt like he’d been punched in the gut.

As soon as the door shut on him, he let out a low groan and dragged his feet back to the couch, allowing himself to fall flat against it. He was at a loss. 

It wasn’t like they didn’t spat, sometimes. Kyle was hot-headed, and Craig was under no illusion that dating him kind of meant putting himself in the firing line sometimes. It was just that usually he was also pretty logical, and would take a moment out the room to calm down before coming back in to continue, a little clearer. 

Not that he was the most reasonable person all the time. Sometimes maybe he would say something to intentionally wind the redhead up, poke a bit too hard out of spite and frustration. Say something thoughtless. 

Like calling him needy. 

“Fuck.”

\--

Kyle returned to talking to him like everything was normal, but it stuck in his mind. He knew this time of year was important to Kyle, yet didn’t summon enough enthusiasm. At the same time, he didn’t feel like he should _have_ to force enthusiasm; Kyle knew what he was getting into when he asked Craig on the first date, and he’d expressed before that it was Craig’s outlook he found refreshing, compared to some of the other people he dated. 

It was nice, he’d said, not having to explain himself. Made him feel like Craig just trusted him. 

“Not like you to look all mopey.”

Craig glared up at the blonde woman who had invited him out to the café as she desperately finished her Christmas shopping far too late. “I’m not being mopey.”

“Sure you’re not,” she drawled as she took a seat down at the table opposite him. “Just like how if you were, I’m sure it would have nothing to do with the fight you and Kyle had.”

Craig bristled. “He told you about that?”

She hummed as she stirred her drink. 

“Oh, come on, you can’t just say that and then play all coy.”

“He wanted to talk to a mutual friend,” she explained. “To see if he was just going crazy, or if it actually was just what you were like.”

Craig hiked his shoulders up as he tried to meet her stubborn gaze. “What? What did he say?”

“I mean, I told him it was what you’re like, you’re not the most…affectionate person in the world, but-!” her coy façade dropped as she leant in close with a disbelieving smirk on her face. “Have you really never said I love you to him?”

He flushed in shame. He hadn’t been expecting that question. “Of course I have.”

“Like, actively?”

“It’s…not something I’ve ever paid much attention to.”

“Oh my god,” she leant back in order to laugh at him. “You’re too much.”

“Fuck off, Bebe.”

She shook her head. “Look, I did you a favor, okay? Don’t act all bitchy.”

“You’re the one being an asshole.”

“Maybe,” she mused. “But whatever.”

“What did you say to him?”

“I told him that if he knew what you were like when he wasn’t around, he’d understand how much you love him. Even if you’re not great at saying it.”

Craig scowled into his mug. 

“You found a gift for him yet?”

“No,” he huffed out a frustrated sigh. “I haven’t. I’m not good at the whole…buying gifts shit. I wish he’d just tell me what he wants.”

“You’ll figure it out. You’ve got a romantic heart in there somewhere. Locked away.”

He scowled and leant in close as one of her questions continued to bother him. “Did he really tell you I never say ‘I love you’?”

“Uh, yes?” she scoffed. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”

It stuck with him. 

Words meant a lot to Kyle. More than they did to him. He was more of an action-than-words kind of guy. 

Maybe he just needed to make an exception. 

\--

He was terrified he was going to mess it up.

There was just so much information to digest online, and he didn’t even know if he’d get it right. It had been a lifetime since he attended church himself, and growing up in a small mountain town didn’t exactly inspire knowledge in different religious traditions. Maybe it was offensive to sort of just…make it up as he went, but his alternative was to ask Kyle’s family, who Kyle still lived with, and would know why he was asking, and it was meant to be a surprise. 

He supposed there was part of him that was still stubborn. Still felt like if he was going to prove something, he should do it himself. 

Craig had invited Kyle found that night, to do something for the holidays. Kyle had agreed, not sounding upset about it or bringing up their argument, and arranged a time. 

Maybe it was like their other fights, where Kyle had left and taken time to calm down, and had got over it, but Craig wasn’t sure that was the best way to deal with every disagreement they had. 

There was a knock on his door as he finished putting the plates on the coffee table, where they’d have dinner that night. He swore low and brushed down his hands against his jeans, before he headed to the door to welcome his guest in. 

When he opened the door and was greeted by a warm smile and red curls, he felt like a weight was lifted from his shoulders. 

“Hey!” Kyle greeted as he stepped over the threshold. 

Craig didn’t say anything. Instead, he dipped down, took hold of Kyle by the arm and pulled him forward so he could seal his greeting with a kiss. 

He wasn’t sure he’d ever tire of this. 

“You made dinner, then?” Kyle asked as he was hanging up his coat, balancing a soft present in his other hand. 

“I tried.”

“You’re not that bad a cook, when you can be bothered.”

“Say that after you’ve eaten it.”

Kyle laughed as he moved into the little living area, though he stopped short at what he was greeted with. 

Craig had tried to find traditional Jewish foods to make, and attempt not to butcher. He hoped he managed to get the presentation down enough that it looked the part, too. 

“What did you make?”

There was a tilt to Kyle’s question that made him think maybe the redhead knew, but wanted it to be confirmed. “A selection of things I’m not going to pretend I remember the names for. There was a lot. You have a lot of food this time of year. 

“Did you-?”

“Just…” Craig cut him off as embarrassment began to rise. “Enjoy it, yeah?”

Kyle looked up at him, warm smile and kind eyes. “Yeah, I will.”

“I hope I didn’t fuck anything up.”

“You didn’t need to replace your Christmas decorations.”

“I didn’t replace them all,” Craig pointed over at the small tree that still sat on his windowsill. “See?”

“I know this one,” Kyle raised the present he had wrapped in his arms. “This goes there.”

Something they didn’t have to name, just between the two of them. Some weird, butchered half way point. 

Kyle didn’t say anything else about it. They sat down on the floor next to the coffee table and the redhead started to comment on the things he’d made, laughing at a failed attempt at recreating some tastes, and approving the ones he’d got down. Craig didn’t have much to compare them to. 

“I’ll show you what we eat, so you can learn some more, if you want. There’s a Jewish supermarket you can get the ingredients from.”

“I didn’t realize how many would be different until I couldn’t fucking find shit the recipes asked for.”

Kyle laughed. “I don’t mind. But if you really wanna go for it, we can.”

Craig shrugged. “Why not?”

At first he stuttered, wondering if it was the wrong thing to say, but when he looked over Kyle didn’t seem to have noticed any ‘unenthusiastic’ response. Or, he just accepted it as what it was. Craig. 

“I did get you a gift.”

“Good,” Kyle stood and headed back to where he’d put his gift for Craig on the windowsill. “I’ll get yours, hang on!”

“Yours is there too. Grab it while you’re there, yeah?”

Kyle picked up the wrapped box he had brought, along with the smaller, thin one that Craig had purchased for him. He felt his palms grow sweaty as Kyle head back to him with a gift in each hand, smile on his face as he dropped onto the couch and gestured for Craig to join him. He pulled himself up, accepting the plush gift he was presented with. 

“Open mine first,” Kyle insisted. 

Craig did as he was told, tearing the paper until he revealed a jumper staring up at him, flag on the arm and spaceman on the back. He withdrew the hoodie and shot Kyle a look, despite the smile on his face 

“Now you can’t complain I stole your hoodie,” Kyle announced with a smirk. “Because you’ve got a new one.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works.”

“Try it on. I got the right size, I think, but I kept the receipt just in case.”

Craig did as he was told, pulling it over his head and standing to look down at it. 

“It’s the one you wanted, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is.”

Kyle’s grin widened. 

“Alright,” Craig sat back down and knocked a knuckle against the box in Kyle’s hands. “It’s nothing fancy. I figured the time I spent making all that food counted.”

Kyle rolled his eyes, but seemed no less enthusiastic about ripping into the paper to get at his gift. Craig felt his heart in his throat as he watched the redhead pull out the small box, no bigger than his hand, before taking off the lid. 

Kyle stopped. 

Craig sucked in a breath as the redhead reached in, pulling out the key that sat in the container. Kyle didn’t look at him, didn’t say anything, and the only look that Craig could take from his face sat somewhere between lost and stunned. 

“It’s a key,” Craig explained, as if that wasn’t totally evident from the fact that it looked and felt like a key and was sat in Kyle’s hand. “To my apartment.” 

Kyle looked up, green eyes wide and a lost expression on his face. “Craig...?” 

“I know I’m not – I don’t say it often,” he started as panic began to rise. “How much I...care about you, but I do, and I know words mean a lot to you but I thought maybe...this would be enough.” 

Kyle’s fingers tightened around the item. 

“Kyle, I...” 

It was three words. Three words that should’ve come so easy. There was nothing that should’ve been different to other things he’d said in the past. An assortment of letters that made a sentence. One he expressed often enough, in his own way, yet... 

His shoulders slumped. 

“You know this means that I’ll be able to come round any time, right?” 

Craig looked up, surprised to see a wry smile on Kyle’s face. 

“Even when you’re not here. Whenever I want a break from my parents I can just swing by and hang here. Maybe you’ll be at work and I’ll want to use your PlayStation to play games with Stan, and there’ll be nothing you can do to stop me.” 

Craig let out an annoyed huff as he smiled back at the man. “I know.” 

“And you’re just gonna let me?” Kyle’s face lit up in excitement. “That was you agreeing to give me free reign of your apartment?” 

“I mean you can’t just come and fuck it all up and make a mess whenever you like. I’m expecting a certain level of respect for my shit.” 

“I think you just like the idea of me being here when you get home from work so that you can boss me around to cook for you.” 

“You’re not that good of a cook.” 

Kyle grinned. “Asshole.” 

“But...yeah,” Craig swallowed a lump in his throat. “I guess I do like the idea of that. I like it a lot,” he looked up, seeing the green eyes staring back at him. “The idea you can just come round and use my place like it was your own is...I love it.” 

Maybe they weren’t the three words he’d intended to say, but it was a step in the right direction. 

Kyle ducked forward, smile playing on his lips as he got closer, hand still clutching the key tightly. “I love you, too.” 

He took hold of Kyle’s elbows as he pulled him closer, eyes slipping shut as he enjoyed the feeling of the other man’s lips against his own. The pair of them sat side by side on the couch, Craig's hands clutching Kyle like he was telling him something important in that kiss. Kyle... 

Kyle didn’t le t go of that key, even as their lips moved against each other, full of a softness that was rare from them. Didn’t make a move to touch Craig beyond their lips, and when they finally separated, neither of them pulled back further than their noses touching. 

“Thank you,” Kyle muttered against his lips. “For this.” 

Craig responded with another kiss. 


End file.
